Case No.: IT-02-54-T

IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding
Judge O-Gon Kwon
Judge Iain Bonomy

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
3 December 2004

PROSECUTOR

v.

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

_________________________________________________

ORDER ON APPLICATION BY THE ACCUSED TO ADD FOUR WITNESSES TO HIS WITNESS LIST

__________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor

Ms. Carla Del Ponte
Mr. Geoffrey Nice

The Accused

Mr. Slobodan Milosevic

Court Assigned Counsel

Mr. Steven Kay, QC
Ms. Gillian Higgins

Amici Curiae

Prof. Timothy L.H. McCormack

 

THIS TRIAL CHAMBER of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("the International Tribunal"),

BEING SEISED OF a confidential memorandum from the Pro Se Legal Liaison Officer, Ms. Anoya, attaching a letter from one of the legal associates of the Accused, Mr. Ognjanovic, seeking to add four defence witnesses (named in the letter) to defence witness list, who it is intended would testify on 9 December 2004 ("Application"), and submitting that

  1. They had recently established contact with the four witnesses;
  2. In the spring of 1999, the witnesses were officially engaged by their government as medical aid workers "in the border region (Gornie Place) in the treatment of Albanian refugees from Kosovo";
  3. Although they are not listed as proposed defence witnesses, "their testimony would be of significant relevance for the defence case",

NOTING the statement by Ms. Anoya in her memorandum that she had "informed Mr. Ognjanović of the obligation on Mr. Milosevic to submit this request in writing to the Trial Chamber seeking leave to add the new witnesses to the list",

NOTING that the Trial Chamber has received no response to the application from the Prosecution and that the 14 day period for responses under Rule 126 bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence ("Rules") has now passed,

CONSIDERING that, although the application is deficient both in its form and content, the Trial Chamber will consider it,

NOTING the Trial Chamber’s "Order Concerning the Preparation and Presentation of the Defence Case", issued on 17 September 2003, in which the Trial Chamber stated that it "may refuse to hear a witness whose name does not appear on the Accused’s list of witnesses. If the Accused wishes to add any witnesses or exhibits to his witness list after the Pre-Defence Conference, he must apply to the Chamber for permission to do so showing good cause",1

CONSIDERING that

  1. no proper explanation has been provided in the application which satisfies the that good cause requirement;
  2. no summary, in the form of a Rule 65 ter summary, of the testimony it is proposed the witness would give has been provided; and
  3. applications to add witnesses or exhibits to the Rule 65 ter lists should be made in writing, because it is necessary for such a summary of the proposed evidence to be provided,

PURSUANT TO Rule 54 of the Rules

HEREBY REFUSES THE APPLICATION without prejudice to the Accused being allowed to make future written applications which address the deficiencies in the application explained above.

 

Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative.

___________________
Judge Robinson
Presiding

Dated this third day of December 2004
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1. Para. (6): The Chamber referred to Rule 90 (G), and to the fact that the "good cause" requirement is the same as that required by the Prosecution and set out in the Trial Chamber’s "Decision on Prosecution Request for Agreement of Trial Chamber to Amended Schedule of Filings", 18 April 2003.